Green cremation open for business in Minnesota

A Scottish company has installed its second “Resomation” machine, in the US state of Minnesota…The new facility in Stillwater, Minnesota, has already processed the remains of 20 individuals.

Resomation involves the dissolution of the deceased in an alkaline solution, and is billed in the US as “green cremation” or “flameless cremation”.

A first machine was installed in Florida last year, and has been used on 10 bodies to date.

Sandy Sullivan, chief executive officer of Resomation Ltd, said the machine was running very efficiently after some fine-tuning…”We’ve developed the process to a stage where it’s running very well. I’m happy with where it is,” he told BBC News.

“There has been refinement in software changes and pipe work changes to make it quieter and things like that, but the machine is running very smoothly.”

Resomation involves the heating of the remains at some 300C in a pressurised vessel containing a potassium hydroxide solution…The process takes around three hours and reduces the body to skeletal remains which are processed into a white powder which can be given to the family, like ash from crematoria…

Mercury from amalgam vaporised in crematoria is blamed for a proportion of airborne mercury emissions worldwide.

If they can keep the cost comparable to or below conventional cremation, I’m all for the idea. Though I live in a county which permits home burial and I may end up someday tucked away in a burlap sack out in the back meadow.